1. With the majority of professional advisors (myself included) preaching the benefits of global diversification to their clients, 2014 looks more like a draw than an outright victory in the harsh light of December’s low winter sun. Consider the fact that, through last week, the MSCI World Index gained just 2% on the year, with nearly 5% drops for both the MSCI Emerging Markets index and the EAFE index of developed markets outside of the United States. Ironically, the single best-performing foreign market in the world, the Shanghai Composite of mainland Chinese equities (up 45%) is the only one that U.S. investors could not actually put their money into.

2. We will make solid efforts to pursue the Belt and Road Initiative.

3. Contributing columnist Antoine Gelain is the managing director of Paragon European Partners. He is based in London.

4. 住房市场在去年年初表现抢眼，但到年末时则受到不断加重的担忧情绪困扰，这其中包括利率上升、供给制约、信贷收紧及一系列其他问题。

5. As a measure of that fall, 10 works have sold at auction for more than $100 million since 2004, and all of them were made by modern or contemporary artists in the past 120 years. Older paintings have seen their value, in relative terms, level off or decline. The trend was plain to see in recent weeks, as London’s auction houses tried to find buyers for their latest tranche of old masters. As has been the case in recent years, there were few works by major names.

6. 37岁的总督瑞奇·罗塞略在午夜宣誓后提出了几项用于缓解短期危机的措施。其中包括一项公投的提案将询问投票公民是否同意建州或独立。许多人认为，波多黎各的政治地位产生了长达十年的危机，近年来已促使超过20万波多黎各人逃往美国大陆。

应用

1. The index fell from 50.4 in October to a six-month low of 50.0.

2. 彭博(Bloomberg)的调查分析此前预计1月份中国CPI应上升1.9%。

3. A teenage student in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality has been sentenced to one year in jail after trying to poison fellow students for being too noisy in class, local media reported last Wednesday.

4. 这位工作人员表示：“我们的数据显示该用户的年龄是28岁，并非媒体上报道的13岁。”

5. Are you ready for a summer scare? Conjuring 2: The Enfield Poltergeist is set to hit the screens on June 10, 2016. We reckon that this is going to be a good horror movie.

6. 替代燃料：自从柴油车于上世纪50年代从欧洲进入美国以来，人们对柴油车的热情首次冷却殆尽，取而代之的是马力高得吓人的雪佛兰CamaroZL1（580匹马力），和707匹马力的道奇挑战者SRT地狱火等车型。另外，续航里程更长的燃料电池汽车也开始登上舞台，从电池动力汽车那里抢走了不少风头。

旧版特色

1. 全球肥胖率上升的前因后果。

2. 但是随着西方制造业和工业的衰落，不少工薪阶层市镇也随之衰败，父母和祖父母们发现，下一代已经不能拥有他们曾经拥有的机会了。

3. 中国（大陆及香港）在排行榜上新添了25个成员，增长数量超过其他任何国家，共计207家。三个国家今年首次在排行榜上亮相了：毛里求斯、斯洛伐克以及多哥。